I have to say I reckon I have a major collection. Can't remember the first one I bought, but started collecting them in 1967 and quit with the demise of James F. Dunnigan's SPI. Loved AH's Afrika Corps and D-Day. Spent lots of time crawling around on the carpet for Jutland. A monster game collection I do have, sitting in boxes in storage out in Idaho (which most people think is noted for growing corn). Most everything from AH's Tactics II to the era of SPI dominance. I remember being in the USMC stationed at Quantico and awaiting War in the East. I'd be on the phone every week or so with SPI wanting to know why it was delayed (still don't know, but when it arrived I was quite the happy Marine). I played HTH with a historian who worked at the Pentagon for a long time. Mostly played it solitaire thereafter. War in Europe became my favorite. Had a foursome who played War in the Pacific for awhile in Idaho (you know, the corn state), but that the level of detail eventually dwindled down to just me and I put it away. The demise of SPI was nearly as serious as the death of Elvis Presley.

And, yes, a cat became the death of my board wargaming days....I guess I played them a fair amount.

I played two huge SPI games - ETO and PTO I believe they were called, as well as Flat Top. I have box sets of all three. Played them in the 90s mostly. I recall a monster game where we combined ETO and PTO and the Axis won for once. Even then I was a JFB, interestingly enough.

My first wargame was Battle of the Bulge (original version) from Avalon Hill. I bought and played several AH games through the years, with Third Reich being my favorite. Also bought SPIs Wacht am Rhein and War in the Pacific. Never really played them. Mostly set them up in my parent's basement and admired them.

Im sorry i meant "Pacific War" wasnt sure what brand that is, hard to til in the picture. Victory games perhap, but i think its Avalon Hills.

Thinking about buying it for friend to play in person, but there a few on ebay selling it and i dont have paypal. My paypal account got screwed up due to security reasons and they never helped me to clear it up. Does anyone know where i can get one with credit/debit card or bank's money order?

I forgot about Victory Games. I never had this one, but I did want it.

The demise of SPI was nearly as serious as the death of Elvis Presley.

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ORIGINAL: Empire101 ++1

I always preferred Avalon Hill to SPI. AH didn't have the monster games SPI had, but they focused more on playability than any of the other war game makers.

AH was the last company standing from the golden age when everything shook out. If they hadn't become embroiled in a lawsuit with Microprose over the name of the game Civilization, they might still be around as a separate entity. Ironically Hasbro now owns both the AH name as well as Microprose's library of titles. Hasbro sold off the rights to many of AH's biggest wargames to other, smaller companies. What they wanted was the rights to some of AH's multiplayer games like Diplomacy for making online versions, which never really happened.

About all that happened was Hasbro moved Axis and Allies to the AH brand and re-released a few AH titles under the new AH and that's about it.

Probably the last boardgame I played a lot of was Victory's Tokyo Express, since it was designed for solitaire play. Absolutely loved it.

Ed-

What a great game. I should check the Vassal game site to see if it is on there.

It's on Vassal.

They have one on Ebay that's an absolute steal at anything close to that price, but I'd bet some counters are missing. There are sites online you can get missing counters but I have an unpunched version I can to email an image of any counters if anyone on here buys it and is short anything.

I played two huge SPI games - ETO and PTO I believe they were called, as well as Flat Top. I have box sets of all three. Played them in the 90s mostly. I recall a monster game where we combined ETO and PTO and the Axis won for once. Even then I was a JFB, interestingly enough.

Warspite1

I played ETO and PTO a lot (loved the yellow they used for the Japanese units) - they were really good games. I then stumbled across World In Flames, just at the time Planes In Flames (and shortly after, Ships In Flames) came out. Didn't play anything else for many years - and won't again if MWIF ever puts in an appearance

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England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson - October 1805

The demise of SPI was nearly as serious as the death of Elvis Presley.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Empire101 ++1

I always preferred Avalon Hill to SPI. AH didn't have the monster games SPI had, but they focused more on playability than any of the other war game makers.

AH was the last company standing from the golden age when everything shook out. If they hadn't become embroiled in a lawsuit with Microprose over the name of the game Civilization, they might still be around as a separate entity. Ironically Hasbro now owns both the AH name as well as Microprose's library of titles. Hasbro sold off the rights to many of AH's biggest wargames to other, smaller companies. What they wanted was the rights to some of AH's multiplayer games like Diplomacy for making online versions, which never really happened.

About all that happened was Hasbro moved Axis and Allies to the AH brand and re-released a few AH titles under the new AH and that's about it.

Bill

The problem there is that Hasbro spun off the A&A brand name into two different entities. You have the boardgame versions (Pick your flavor: Original, Europe, Pacific, D-Day, 1942, Battle of the Bulge, Guadalcanal.) or via Hasbro's owned and not controlled Wizards of the Coast entity the A&A Minis with three different versions of these games out (Air, Land and Sea) everything else of the AH line they tried to have computer games as well as the board games. The Computer games stunk and in turn for a new generation of gamers who might have played the board games they think the original boardgames are a pain the in arse. Add in that Hasbro has also diluted the quintessential wargame "Risk" with just as many versions (I think my last time in a game store this month I saw every possible pop fad from Mechwarrior style theme to Game of Thrones and Battle Star Galatica) as they have of A&A. Hasbro and Parker Brothers are the "Beer and Preztels" of game makers. Everyone else that I know from Decision Games to GMT Games strive for everything in between in their catalogs.

As for myself I have gotten back into board and minis gaming because it just been fun to sit there with some friends in person. Trash talking or chit-chatting as the dice are rolled and trade shots of a bunch of PT boats and ADBA Destroyers attempt to defend some vital waterway from the Tokoyo Express or wonder if by zigging instead of Zagging in tactics that some of the more infamous events like Op Oboe could have gone a from being a marginal or minor victory to being the brillant victory they were expected to be. Also it is easier to factor in RL into a table game then it is a computer game recently

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Take my word for it. You never want to be involved in an “International Incident”.

ORIGINAL: YankeeAirRat The problem there is that Hasbro spun off the A&A brand name into two different entities. You have the boardgame versions (Pick your flavor: Original, Europe, Pacific, D-Day, 1942, Battle of the Bulge, Guadalcanal.) or via Hasbro's owned and not controlled Wizards of the Coast entity the A&A Minis with three different versions of these games out (Air, Land and Sea) everything else of the AH line they tried to have computer games as well as the board games. The Computer games stunk and in turn for a new generation of gamers who might have played the board games they think the original boardgames are a pain the in arse. Add in that Hasbro has also diluted the quintessential wargame "Risk" with just as many versions (I think my last time in a game store this month I saw every possible pop fad from Mechwarrior style theme to Game of Thrones and Battle Star Galatica) as they have of A&A. Hasbro and Parker Brothers are the "Beer and Preztels" of game makers. Everyone else that I know from Decision Games to GMT Games strive for everything in between in their catalogs.

Many people in the industry were scratching their heads when Hasbro bought AH. The sort of games AH produced were a mega hit if they sold 10,000 copies over their lifetime. Hasbro considered a game a flop if it failed to sell 100,000 copies a year. Very different scales.

What Hasbro wanted more than anything else was the rights to Diplomacy which they thought could become the next online gaming wonder and AH's parent, Monarch Publishing, needed to unload the gaming wing quickly to settle the law suit. In the end Hasbro didn't do much of anything with Diplomacy. If they released a computer game of it, I didn't notice.

I see ads for AH in a history magazine I subscribe to and my stomach kind of does a flip every time I see the ads. It's like seeing a great actress like Meryl Streep do an Ed Wood quality movie because she's sunk so low.

quote:

As for myself I have gotten back into board and minis gaming because it just been fun to sit there with some friends in person. Trash talking or chit-chatting as the dice are rolled and trade shots of a bunch of PT boats and ADBA Destroyers attempt to defend some vital waterway from the Tokoyo Express or wonder if by zigging instead of Zagging in tactics that some of the more infamous events like Op Oboe could have gone a from being a marginal or minor victory to being the brillant victory they were expected to be. Also it is easier to factor in RL into a table game then it is a computer game recently

I don't have anybody in the real world even remotely interested in these sorts of games. I'd love to just get some people together to play AH's Civilization, which isn't really a "wargame", but can't get any takers. My schedule is too erratic right now to play a real person anything that takes more than a day anyway.

Probably the last boardgame I played a lot of was Victory's Tokyo Express, since it was designed for solitaire play. Absolutely loved it.

Ed-

What a great game. I should check the Vassal game site to see if it is on there.

It's on Vassal.

They have one on Ebay that's an absolute steal at anything close to that price, but I'd bet some counters are missing. There are sites online you can get missing counters but I have an unpunched version I can to email an image of any counters if anyone on here buys it and is short anything.

I met Jim Dunnigan through his online Hundred Years War game. What a great guy.

Loved that game, too, but now they're not providing any support to it at all. I think I might have been their last active player, simply because I wasn't going to quit before my subscription was up, and it's not much fun with no opponents! I was playing it until earlier this year.

Other than Risk the first game I ever played was Strategy and Tactics' USN way back in 1980 and have been hooked ever since. Played many more and have still got all of the board games, both boxed and magazine but am looking to get rid of them. Due to the lack of opponents I thought of computers being the way forward with the idea that I could possible program as the AI. Wishful thinking now but it did lead me into switching carreers away from electronics into computers for the last 30 years of my working life.

There's a moral in the story somewhere about playing games to get on in life.

I played countless hours of Star Fleet Battles in college (should have gotten at least a minor out of it). Also had a great Federation and Empire setup in my apartment at one point. I grew up playing AH games (Third Reich, 1776, War and Peace) against my dad, of course he always wanted to play the 'underdog' (CSA, Germans, etc). After college, we even played most of a campaign of Victory Games War Between the States by phone, we would plot our turns, call when we had time to do the moves and die rolls (and that game had a shifting initiative system, so mail seemed impractical). Great memories. Tried to talk him into Third Reich PBEM, but he never really got into computers.

Now my son is off to college, played a lot of risk but he never got into the 'hex' games. We did do some Civilization games together, but he is more into the FPS games.

Nashvillen-I know you are still involved with SFB/ADB, has there been any progress on a computerized version of Federation and Empire?